The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Section 4, Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties

Review Quiz

Who is the Communist Manifesto's target audience? What are its aims as a
document?

Political reforms cannot eliminate class antagonisms because these antagonisms
are due to the basic structure of society. Class is an outgrowth of the means
of production. It is this economic structure that gives certain people the
power to exploit others. As long as this structure exists, there will be a
ruling class and an exploited class. Reforms might improve the standard of
living of the exploited class, but it cannot alter the fact that they are
powerless socially. Marx refers to the advocates of such reforms as
Conservative Socialists. These socialists are misguided because they don't
realize that class struggle is integral to history, and is unavoidable in the
capitalist system. They represent bourgeois interests, because they are trying
to preserve bourgeois hegemony by dampening the revolutionary energy of the
proletariat. These conservative socialists will ultimately fail, however,
because the revolution is an unavoidable stage of history, and the proletariat
will always be a revolutionary class.

Why isn't it possible to eliminate class antagonisms through political reforms
that improve the workers' quality of life? How does the Manifesto reply to such
reformers?

The proletariat is a unique class in several ways. First, the exploitation it
faces is more transparent than that of any previous class. In the past, class
relationships were clouded by religious beliefs and sentimentality. People did
not realize that their relationships were fundamentally economic and
exploitative in nature. Capitalism exposes this exploitation, because it is
based solely on ideals of self-interest and money. Thus, the proletariat are
uniquely aware of their status as exploited peoples. Secondly, the proletariat
are more interconnected than any previous revolutionary class. This is due to
improved communication brought about by capitalism's technological advances, and
because the proletariat all share an equally miserable existence. They are also
the majority in society, whereas previous revolutionary classes were
traditionally in the minority. Finally, their historical role is unique. In
order to further their ends as a class, they must destroy the entire system of
class exploitation. Thus, with their revolution all private property is
eliminated and classes disappear.

Perhaps the most serious question about the proletariat, then, is why they will
revolt. Marx believes that revolutions are spontaneous uprisings of exploited
peoples. He does a plausible job of showing why the proletariat have reason to
overthrow the current system, and even why they would eliminate private property
if they succeeded. What is less clear is what would motivate the original
revolution. There is a jump between historical forces and individual agency
that it may be hard to accept. The proletariat are unique in large degree
because their conditions are so dire. It is worth considering whether Marx
underestimates the power of such conditions to defeat, rather than motivate,
oppressed peoples.

How is the proletariat different from past revolutionary classes?

Marx argues that the property rights that the bourgeoisie wish to protect are
actually bourgeois property rights. They protect bourgeois interests, as
can be seen by the fact that only the bourgeoisie actually own property. Marx
further argues that property itself is a social commodity. It belongs to people
because of the social structure of society. Thus, changing private property
into communal property is really only changing the social character of property.
It is not violating a personal claim. This argument about property is similar
to Marx's arguments about other rights, as well as about law, philosophy and
religion. None of these notions reflects universal truths, valid across all
social contexts; rather, they are all ways of protecting the interests of the
ruling class. For example, the bourgeoisie make property into a right because
they are the ones with the property. We may think that some of these ideas are
truly universal, because they have survived across time. However, it is more
likely that they have lasted throughout history only because exploitation has
lasted throughout history. With an end to exploitation, many of the ideals
embraced by modern society would be radically altered.

How does the Manifesto reply to people who complain that the elimination of
private property violates property rights? What does this suggest about the
validity of rights in general?

Why is it necessary for Communists to call for a worker's revolution, if they
believe that such a revolution is inevitable?

How is modern Industrial society self-destructive? Why does Marx believe that
the end of modern society will represent the end of all class antagonisms?

What is Marx's theory of history? Use this theory to explain the decline and
fall of the feudal era. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this theory?

Despite Marx's predictions, Communism has not emerged out of Industrial society
to become the dominant societal system. Is this fact enough to disprove Marxist
theory? Speculate on how Marx would explain this fact, in keeping with the
general structure of his theory.

It can be very difficult to figure out what Marx believed a Communist society
would look like. What hints does he give in the Manifesto about his vision of
this future society? How does this vision compare with "Communist" societies
that arose in later years (e.g., in the Soviet Union)?